New Wilco and July Talk out today, a sweet NIN+Bowie release, plus new re-issues.

We said the new releases would start rolling in frequently and this week we’ve got some great releases that you have been waiting for. The new July Talk and Wilco are out today and an unofficial NIN+Bowie release has also arrived. Head down the page for details on these, but first up a little info on the re-issues.

The Cure has several re-issues out and we’re excited to have in this week Pornography (1982) and The Head on the Door (1985), hopefully not too long a wait until we get in Three Imaginary Boys (1979), Seventeen Seconds (1980) and Faith (1981).

Many of you will be happy to see that Neil Young has re-issued On the Beach, this one is a tough find if you are hunting for an original, we’ve had it here but it always gets scooped up before it hits the shop floor. At least now you can get a fresh copy that won’t cost you as much as the 1974 version.

Onto the new releases for this week!

July Talk – Touch

Upon returning to Toronto from a final European tour with his band, Peter Dreimanis sat in a candlelit bar paying little attention to the beat-up acoustic guitar being passed from patron to patron around him; that was until it found its home in the hands of Leah Fay. He sat listening, dumfounded, realizing heʼd met his match. Clearheaded the next day, he started his search for the stranger from the bar with whom he seemingly shared a soul. He found her; they founded July Talk.
After linking up with Ian Docherty, Josh Warburton and Danny Miles, the band created a signature sound that is not easy to pigeonhole. Imagine Tom Waits and Amy Millan shouting whiskey-soaked lullabies while backed by the members of Crazy Horse and youʼd have a good start. Striking a frenzied balance between Americana and dance-floor-filling indie-rock, July Talkʻs Beauty and the Beast aesthetic burns a little going down, but is sure to warm your belly and have you coming back for more.

Wilco – Schmilco

Limited ‘Indie-store-only’ colour vinyl edition of Wilco’s 10th album! Schmilco features 12 new songs written by Jeff Tweedy and it is the third release on the band’s own dBpm Records. It follows Star Wars, which was released as a surprise in July 2015. Mostly an acoustic collection, Schmilco bears neither the vicious, fuzz-glam guitars of Star Wars, nor the dazzling, baroque-ish arrangements that fans have come to expect from Wilco. But in their place is a spaciousness and chaos that might feel welcome after 20-some years of enjoyed but now-familiar Wilco releases. It is an intentionally loose affair. Schmilco finds band leader Tweedy in a state of alienation: how to cope with dissonance between self-identity and the public perception of his band – to maintain an innocence and earnestness even as some have come to see him as more (or less) than human, and Wilco as something other than six musicians? “I think this record is ‘joyously negative’,” Tweedy said. “It’s sad in a lot of ways but not in any that reach a conclusion of doom or hopelessness… I just had a lot of fun being sour about the things that upset me.” Recorded at the band’s Chicago studio the Loft, Schmilco is produced by Jeff Tweedy and Tom Schick.

Nine Inch Nails With David Bowie – Back in Anger
The 1995 Radio Transmissions – St. Louis, MO 1995 – Vol.1 and Vol.2

The concert featured on these remarkable releases finds David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails playing at The Riverport Amphitheatre in St Louis, Missouri, on 11th October 1995. With the entire gig broadcast by local FM radio, the sound quality is second to none and the performance – by both artists – among the finest of the whole tour. Not previously released on deluxe vinyl this rare recording will prove an enormously attractive release, allowing fans to relive an essential event in the careers of both artists.